


Less Than Three

by IrinyaClockworker



Category: Nancy Drew (Video Games), Warehouse 13
Genre: Crossover, F/F, Fluff, Humor, I am the change I wish to see in the world, I know many of you have zero reason to read this but I am writing it for myself so, Steve is Claudia's big brother. not like literally but in spirit, gummy bear girlfriends
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-01
Updated: 2020-04-01
Packaged: 2021-03-01 07:13:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23347495
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IrinyaClockworker/pseuds/IrinyaClockworker
Summary: They've kind of been dating for a while now. Well, maybe it's dating. Maybe she's misinterpreting it. And anyway the last time she was in a relationship the guy was in witness protection andthatdidn't really go well, for obvious reasons, so maybe it's not even a good idea. It's up for debate, really. Still, Ryan is cute and funny and smart and Claudia really really might be into her like, alot.So yeah. Might as well give this a try.
Relationships: Claudia Donovan/Ryan Kilpatrick
Comments: 6
Kudos: 8





	Less Than Three

"Are you _sure_ this is okay? Not that I don't _want_ to see your super secret workplace that keeps dragging you off in the middle of lunch or whatever, but I mean, like I said, super secret, is this really okay?" Ryan looks like she's about to burst from excitement. _Aw, you're cute when you get like that._

"Yeah, it's fine. Just don't tell anyone or I might have to kill you." She grins and hopes it's obvious she's joking. Of course the possibility of Ryan being put in a life-threatening situation does escalate a bit once the Warehouse is brought into the picture, but _Claudia_ isn't going to be the one causing that. Well, maybe. She can think of a couple of times when something like that has happened. Really sucks. 

"Oh!" Ryan's eyes widen. "Wait, you're kidding. You're kidding, right? You're not actually going to--"

"It's a joke, Ryan. Seriously, don't tell anyone though, 'kay?" _Don't really need the Regents breathing down my neck about it._ "I get to tell one person about this place, and that's it, so don't go passing out info packets or anything."

"Right!" Ryan reaches into her jacket pocket and pulls out a small bag. Claudia knows exactly what's in it, and holds her hand out, waiting.

"No contraband," she says, still smiling. "I'm going to have to confiscate those. Don't want any security breaches."

Ryan sticks her tongue out, but gives Claudia a few gummy bears anyway.

"Ooh, strawberry. My favorite." She pops them into her mouth happily, and speaks through them: "Why are the strawberry ones green, anyway?"

"I don't know!" Ryan replies. "I have absolutely no idea. Why _are_ the strawberry ones green?" she asks a red gummy bear. "Why aren't _you_ strawberry?" In a deeper voice, she continues, "I don't know, Ryan! I'm a gummy bear! I am not privy to the secrets of the universe like Claudia is." She pauses, and in her normal voice, 'replies', "Good point, Mr. Bear. Thanks for your input! But you have now outlived your usefulness to me..." Only a moment later, the gummy bear is in her mouth.

"You're so mean to them," Claudia laughs, only to accidentally walk into the Warehouse door because she was paying more attention to Ryan's gummy bear shenanigans than where she was going. "Ow!"

"Hey, you good?" 

"Yeah!" She rubs the back of her head a little. _That smarts._ "Yeah, just give me a second. Have to get past the security and all that. The security I set up myself," she adds, because she's proud of her work and wants Ryan to be proud of it too.

"You put in a _retinal scanner?_ Not even my lab has that, that's _so cool!_ You got any other stuff?" Ryan chatters as the door swings open, to which Claudia just grins. 

"Oh, you don't know the half of it." She grabs Ryan's hand and pulls her through Artie's office, not wanting to bother with that just yet, and shoves the door open, throwing her other arm out over the endless shelves and the artifacts contained therein. "Welcome to Warehouse 13!"

"...Okay?" Ryan's clearly talking through a mouthful of gummy bears. "Your super secret job is at a warehouse? Do you drive a super secret forklift?"

"Do I--No!" Claudia sputters. "I do not drive a super secret _forklift._ I collect supernaturally powered objects that--"

"Claud?"

 _Oh my god._ "Jinksy!" She turns around and beams, hoping desperately that he won't be weird about it. "Hey!" _Now is **really** not the time..._

"Hey to you too. Who's..." He gestures to Ryan, who's still leaning on the railing and looking out over the Warehouse, and still chewing on another handful of gummy bears. 

"Oh. That's Ryan!" Claudia clasps her hands behind her back. "I told you about her. Remember?"

"Oh, the one you keep having to skip out on dates with? _That_ Ryan?"

Claudia winces. "Yeah. _That_ Ryan. Why? There a problem?"

"No, not at all. I just didn't expect you to bring her _here._ Not so soon, anyway. Are you sure it's..."

"It's _fine._ Look, Ryan's smart, she would've figured it out eventually, even if maybe not the details--"

"Ryan can hear you," a blue gummy bear says in their direction, before meeting an unfortunate demise.

"Sorry!"

Steve moves over to Ryan's side. "Pretty impressive, isn't it?"

"...I... guess?" Ryan blinks at him. "Want a gummy bear?"

"You have pineapple?" 

"You like _pineapple_ gummy bears? _Excellent_ taste." Ryan's eyes gleam. "Take. Take of my bears and be merry!" 

Steve takes of her bears. He does not seem particularly merry, but he does seem to be enjoying them. 

"So... who are you, anyway?" Ryan finally asks, to which Steve does a bit of a double take.

"Claud, have you not talked about me at all? I'm hurt." He's clearly joking... mostly. Probably. She _hopes_ he's joking.

"I've talked about you... sometimes... Hey, you probably don't mention me to your boyfriends."

"You say that like you think anything's worked out."

"Aww, don't worry, Jinksy. I'm sure you'll find your Prince Charming eventually." Claudia makes a big show of patting his shoulder sympathetically, while also giving him the most smug expression possible.

He just shakes his head, and turns back to Ryan. "Steve Jinks. I'm Claudia's..."

"BFFWYLION," Claudia supplies helpfully.

"What?"

"Best Friend Forever, Whether You Like It Or Not," she elaborates, grinning. "Jinksy here is stuck with me. Simple as that."

"Aw, cute." Ryan grins back. "Now please, continue. What was it you were saying about supernaturally powered objects? Because that sounds _super_ interesting and like a really sweet job, I'm kinda jealous."

"It _is_ a really sweet job, and you _should_ be jealous," Claudia replies gleefully. "Bet your job never gets as interesting as mine."

"I don't know, I mean, I told you about the murder investigation that one time. That was... Not _interesting_ per se but it definitely wasn't boring."

Claudia winces, and automatically starts walking down the stairs, wanting to put as much distance between them and Artie's office as possible. "Yeah, uh. Don't bring that one up around Artie, okay? My boss, I mean. Sort of. Ish."

"Hm?" Ryan falls into step beside her. "Why not? What, he get accused of murder once?"

"No. Well, maybe. I don't know. He's just _not_ a fan of that Drew girl. She tends to attract... problems."

"Really? Seems like the opposite to me." 

"Oh, no no no no no. We have a whole section of artifacts related to her stuff. Well, they're actually all spread out, but we _could_ have a whole section." Claudia shakes her head. "There's this set of gold token things we had to pick up one time from this boarding school in New York? That was a bad one. Or the necklace from that island down near Georgia... I wouldn't be too shocked if she managed to create her own artifact one of these days." She grimaces. "Eugh, I hope not. That'd suck majorly."

"You've lost me," Ryan says cheerfully. "What's an artifact?"

"Right." _Shit._ "Uh, artifacts are... all these things. The stuff I help collect. A lot of it is dangerous, so we put it here, where it can't hurt anybody."

"Why's it dangerous?"

"I... don't know." Claudia pauses to think for a moment. "You know how you work with Tesla coils? They can be useful, but they can also be really dangerous if misused? Artifacts are like that, it's just we don't really understand _why_ they're like that. There's a process to them forming, but the mechanics behind it all is still just kinda... Whatever." She shrugs. "We do what we can. Hey, speaking of Tesla..." 

"Yeah?" Ryan's eyes are sparkling now. 

"Take a look at this."

Claudia holds out her Tesla excitedly, only to receive complete bewilderment from Ryan. 

"Uh... cool? Nice steampunk thing you have going. Doesn't look very practical, though."

"Well, it wouldn't be, if it was firing bullets." Claudia beams. They've arrived in front of the Target Coil by now, so she aims the Tesla at it. "Here, watch this!"

As soon as she fires, Ryan makes a noise that defies classification. "You have a _ray gun?!"_

"Something like that." Claudia shrugs. "It's called a Tesla. No points for guessing why it was named that."

"You named it after him?" 

"Better." Claudia grins. "He _invented_ it."

Ryan's jaw drops. "Can I look at it? Can I? Please please please please please?"

"You can," Claudia agrees magnanimously. "In fact, I'll even show you exactly how it works. I've been doing some tinkering with the thing, I have a _lot_ I think you'll want to see."

She's _not_ expecting Ryan to hug her so tightly, nor the excited giggling into her hair, but she doesn't mind. Ryan's cute when she gets excited. Well, Ryan's cute all the time, but...

"Best. Girlfriend. Ever," Ryan mumbles, and Claudia's pretty sure she turns bright red.

"I... Yeah! Well. No problem..." 

_Note to self: **definitely** worth it._


End file.
